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Basic Car Care
You're a mechanical engineer, not a mechanic. But if you've never turned a wrench in your life, good luck getting anyone to build the things you design. Never fear, it's not too late to learn! Many of you have a perfect opportunity sitting right outside. Essential tools for general maintenance: -Car jack and stands A car jack gets your rig off the ground, but they're generally unstable and the hydraulic ones are prone to sudden failure. Make sure you support the frame at at least two points if you are getting under it. Metal stands, cinderblocks, even your spare tire can save a couple tons from turning you into a pancake. -Socket wrench set A simple 3/8" drive socket wrench and a small selection of sockets is must-have for all sorts of assemblies, even beyond automotive applications. Depending on your car manufacturer, your car will comply with either a metric or imperial unit system. If you have an American car, you may be able to get away with just the imperial set of sockets, but it never hurts to have both. Most of the nuts and bolts that you'll encounter during the operations detailed in this article are standard hex shapes with diameters between 1/4" - 1" (8 - 24 mm ). -Screwdrivers Pretty self explanatory, you know what these do. Make sure you have both Phillips and flathead tips. -Crescent wrench The adjustability sometimes lets you take shortcuts instead of finding the correct socket to fit the fastener, but it won't fit in tight spaces and you run the risk of stripping bolt/nut faces if you're not careful. -Jumper cables Be the hero that your friends call when they're late for work and panicking. Operations: Jumping a dead battery: If nothing happens when you turn the key or there's a weak clicking sound, you might be out of juice. Alligator clip jumper cables and a friend with a car will solve this one. # Make sure both cars are off to start with. # Attach a red clip to the positive terminal of the dead battery. The red clip on the opposite end goes on the positive terminal of the other battery. # Attach a black clip to the negative terminal of the live battery. Find a bare metal surface in the chassis that you can attach the opposite black clip to. Your car's chassis is grounded, which means it is connected to the negative terminal. While you could connect this black clip directly to the negative terminal on the battery itself, this is generally a bad idea as a dead battery offgasses hydrogen and a spark could ignite it. # Start the car with the live battery and let it run for a few minutes. # Try to start the car with the dead battery. If successful, drive/idle the car for half an hour or so to make sure the alternator charges the battery sufficiently to avoid another dead battery. On the other hand, If after ten minutes the car is not at least attempting to turn over, you have bigger problems than a dead battery. Changing a tire: You've got a flat. Or you're training for the pit crew in a NASCAR race. Either way, it's a similar process. # Jack the frame up enough to take most, but not all of the weight off the wheel. # Loosen the lug nuts holding the wheel on with a socket wrench or a tire iron. You may have to jump on the handle a little bit. Make sure to follow the "star" pattern on a five-lug wheel. On a wheel with an even number of lugs, just make sure to undo the nut farthest away from the one you just did. # Jack the wheel entirely off the ground and pull it off of the lugs. Make sure to lift upwards slightly as you pull to avoid scraping the lug threads. # Line up your spare wheel on the lugs and slide it on, again lifting upwards slightly to minimize the weight on the threads. # Screw on your lug nuts finger tight. # Lower the jack until the spare tire is on the ground. Torque your lug nuts to 100 ft-lbs, or in other words, until they feel snug. Oil changes: It's a dirty, messy job, but probably the simplest operation on your car besides filling the gas tank. You'll need a container to catch and dispose of the oil and some rags to clean up the inevitable splatter. # Drive the car around for half an hour or so to warm up the engine oil. # Jack the car up by the frame. Put two supports on either side of the jack, you're going underneath. # Find the oil pan drain plug. It's a bolt head sticking out of the metal pan on the underside of the engine. If you're not sure which one, use the car owner's manual to locate it. Don't destroy your transmission by pulling the wrong bolt. # Use a crescent or socket wrench to unseat the plug. Loosen it by hand the rest of the way, keeping an upward pressure on the bolt to prevent leakage. # Drain the contents of the pan into your container. Be warned, hot oil comes out fast and you don't want to miss. You will, but that's what the towels are for. # Replace your drain plug by hand, then give it a light turn with your wrench to tighten it up. Not too much muscle, it is easy to strip these threads. # Find your oil filter, you may have to reach up into a tight, hot spot to reach it. # If you're lucky, you can unscrew the filter by hand. If not, a filter wrench will help remove it. Be careful, more hot oil will come spilling out. # Take a dab of oil and lubricate the gasket on the lip of your new filter. Make sure the old gasket came off with the old filter--if you accidentally double stack the gaskets, you'll get a bad leak. # Screw in your new oil filter. Technically you should use a wrench, but hand tightening as hard as you can should work. # Refill your oil through the cap on top of the engine. Most cars take around 4 quarts of oil, though some trucks and larger SUVs take 6 or even 8 quarts. Your manual will tell you how much you need to fill and which type of oil to buy. # Lower your car and drive away. Check your dipstick and add oil as needed. Those are a couple basics! If you want to learn more, I recommend being financially and physically reckless. This combination will lead to you having car trouble and no money to fix it, forcing you to figure out how to do it all yourself.